Buy An iPod mini NOW, or WAIT?

[LaMerVipere]

iPod mini's seem to be in plentiful supply these days, so I figured it was time I raided my savings account and indulged myself.

But now I am thinking, they were introduced so long ago, how much longer until the 2nd generation iPod mini comes out with even greater capacity or even smaller size? Has there been any news about upcoming iPod mini updates?

Would you buy now, or save your money and wait?

 

[Phat_Pat]

i don't think anyone really knows when a new one will come out, i mean its just a guess, thats all we can give you.

its true that the mini's havent been updated and it is possible that they will be(soon?). no one will be able to give you a solid answer on that one.

if i were you i would wait..... or you could buy a regualar iPod.

the only true diffence from the iPod mini and the regualar iPod is that its smaller and comes in colors. The iPod is only $50 more than the minis and has 5 times the amount of storage.

the choice is up to you...
choose wisely.....

 

[kwajaln]

to quote one of my fave musical artists....

"let's have some fun, cuz you might die tomorrow, man!"

translation: BUY NOW

 

[LaMerVipere]

you could buy a regualar iPod.

the only true diffence from the iPod mini and the regualar iPod is that its smaller and comes in colors. The iPod is only $50 more than the minis and has 5 times the amount of storage.

the choice is up to you...
choose wisely.....

Well I already have a 15gig 3G regular iPod, so the mini would be an indulge purchase, plus i'd use it when i went jogging. and i could just use my 15gig for portable storage.

 

[Phat_Pat]

Well I already have a 15gig 3G regular iPod, so the mini would be an indulge purpose, plus i'd use it when i went jogging. and i could just use my 15gig for portable storage.

ohh in that case how many songs do you have/plan to get?

is 4 gigs big enough for your music collection?

 

[LaMerVipere]

ohh in that case how many songs do you have/plan to get?

is 4 gigs big enough for your music collection?

i have 3.87gigs right now

 

[Phat_Pat]

i have 3.87gigs right now

do you horribly need a iPod mini?

it might be smart to wait unless you absolutly need one.......

 

[wide]

Definately wait until a new version comes out with more storage and a smaller form factor. When I bought my mini I had about 2 gigs of music, and then a couple months later I had around 5 gigs--it's not fun choosing which music to keep off the mini, and Apple's automatic playlist adjuster doesn't work all that well

 

[pckilla]

has anyone noticed that theres less space than it really says...or is that just on reagular ipods...i dont have a mini but my 40gb really has 37.3gb so you might wanna check and see how much the many really holds

 

[Phat_Pat]

has anyone noticed that theres less space than it really says...or is that just on reagular ipods...i dont have a mini but my 40gb really has 37.3gb so you might wanna check and see how much the many really holds

it's like that with all hard drives... i can't think of the reason right now though.... too tired......

 

[zim]

has anyone noticed that theres less space than it really says...or is that just on reagular ipods...i dont have a mini but my 40gb really has 37.3gb so you might wanna check and see how much the many really holds

That is normal, you never get the full capacity of any drive due to either, in the iPod's situation, os, or just data due to formating... someone else here can most likely explain it better.

 

[tech4all]

has anyone noticed that theres less space than it really says...or is that just on reagular ipods...i dont have a mini but my 40gb really has 37.3gb so you might wanna check and see how much the many really holds

All hard drives are like this. The reason that makes sense to me is that formatting takes up about 10% of the advertised space. So a 100GB hard drive would, in reality, have about ~90-93GB to store data.

There's also something to do with 1024mb vs. 1000mb. But im not too sure how that works.

EDIT: I remember a good example of how to show this. Think of a hard drive like a piece of lined paper. At first the paper has no lines on it, so you have no where to write (yea I know you don't "need" lines, but hear me out), so a machine has to put lines down to show you where to write. In turn the lines take up space on the paper where you can no longer write. Wheras with a hard drive the lines are the formatting sectors and what not.

 

[earthtoandy]

hard drive makers count a gb as 1000mb for sales purposes but in actuality a gb is 1024mb... so when you count a 'fake' GB you are shorting the count by 24mb. and that compounds ever count higher... by 2gb you have lost 48mb, by the 3rd you have lost 72 and so on. You will see an asterik with all hard drives that say the formatted size is smaller cause 1GB=1000MB.

p.s. yes you also lose some space from the formatting process too.

 

[Jovian9]

Buy one. My wife and I have a 4G 40GB (with 30+GB's of music) and a Blue Mini. I love them both. Plus I can fit all of my favorites on the mini so the size is not a problem......and it's great for exercise with the Apple armband.

 

[mms]

No, it's not space being taken up by formatting. It's like this with all drives, and it's a result of the difference between how computer manufacturers and computers measure space differently.

Apple's KnowledgeBase Document describes it well.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60955

As for buying vs. waiting, there is still a pretty high demand for the minis, and they will continue to sell the way they are. Apple does not need to release an update so soon, and I personally believe that they won't this calender year (somewhat wishful thinking, being a recent purchaser of a silver mini). MWSF 2005 won't be unreasonable though, but I for one don't like waiting for updates that could very well not come for a while (remembering the G5 PB rumors, of course). For running, a mini is great, and no doubt far superior to the regular iPods. As a high school cross country runner, I love taking mine out on distance runs.

 

[dotnina]

So about your question ...

I'm in the same boat. I've been thinking about getting a Mini, but it seems like an update is due very, very soon.

If you look at the Macrumors Buyers Guide, you can see that the regular iPod is updated every 6-9 months. It's just about been 9 months for the Mini.

If you take its unprecedented demand / shortage, it seems like we should see a Mini in maybe another 4 months. Of course, if you take into account the upcoming holiday season, it seems like we should see a Mini by November.

 

[LaMerVipere]

Well, I bought a silver iPod mini today...

so I guess that's that!

I couldn't resist, heh

 

[zim]

so I guess that's that!

I couldn't resist, heh

Good for you! I am buying my wife one for Christmas... I am assuming that you had no problems buying one. I think she wants the blue one.

 

[sparks9]

Can anyone remember when the mini was released? Apple usually updates the regular iPod every half year or so, with a major update (new design) once a year.

 

[ec1_mac]

whens the 60gig out? i have a 5gb lol ancient one. With regards to ipod minis there completely sold out over here in the uk, even on ebay there all being shipped from china and abroad. there like gold dust..

 

[sausages]

Would you buy now, or save your money and wait?

buy now. enjoy life in the moment. if a newer model does come out, i'd imagine you'd be able to sell your apple product at about 80% of its origional value without too much trouble.

 

[Blackheart]

hard drive makers count a gb as 1000mb for sales purposes but in actuality a gb is 1024mb... so when you count a 'fake' GB you are shorting the count by 24mb. and that compounds ever count higher... by 2gb you have lost 48mb, by the 3rd you have lost 72 and so on. You will see an asterik with all hard drives that say the formatted size is smaller cause 1GB=1000MB.

p.s. yes you also lose some space from the formatting process too.

I was of the impression that it happened with all of the conversions, not just MB->GB. From the B->KB, KB->MB, and MB->GB.

1024 B = 1 KB
1024 KB = 1 MB
1024 MB = 1 GB
... etc.

The reason they advertise the size as different is because they let 1 GB be equal to 1,000,000,000 Bytes which is not so, it would take 1,073,741,824 Btyes to equal a true GB in the traditional binary fasion of 2^10. You might also notice small print that notes that "1 GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes" on the product packaging.

Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong but this is my understanding of the topic.

 

[mms]

Can anyone remember when the mini was released?

Announced January at MSWF 2004, but wasn't easily available for a while because of hd production problems and not available internationally until July IIRC.

whens the 60gig out?

Apple has officially stated that they are not planning a 60GB version anytime soon. However, Hitachi has successfully created a 60GB drive at the same time and at one point leaked that Apple had ordered some. So nobody knows. IMO if they are planning one it would make sense to have it out for the holidays, though.